Causes, Effects and control of international terrorism Essay

            Terrorism can be described in different ways depending on one’s view, it has been generally seen as a strategy used to oppress others without a clear reason. Generally it can be defined as the use of unlawful violence which brings about fear and destruction to people, society, and governments for the sake of political, ideological, religious, and economic goals. Terrorism can be categorized in many categories which include bioterrorism, chemical terrorism, and militant terrorism. At the same time terrorism can be broadly divided into two categories depending on the place of occurance.These groups includes the domestic terrorism and the international terrorism. Domestic terrorism can be seen as the terrorism which occurs in one’s country and the international terrorism can be seen as the terrorism which occurs outside one’s country.

.           Terrorism is not new to the current world, it has been occurring  before in different instances such as the Kosovo and Bosnia genocide, Hutus and Tutsis massacres in Congo, Holocaust of Jews by the Nazi, Turks genocide of the Armenians. Terrorist acts generally occur all over the world including United States of America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Most of the terrorist attacks are carried out by the religious ideologists who consider this method as an effective method of solving their conflicts with the powerful countries. This paper tries to bring out the causes, effects and control of terrorism.

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            The causes of International terrorism can be grouped into four main causes which include the ideological, religious, economic and political causes respectively. Terrorism is being practiced by groups of people and some states in general (Betts, Richard. 1998).

. The main aim of terrorists is to perform violent acts which cause harm to the population, government and the world at large for example, terrorist attacks that occurred in 1972 in Munich Olympics, United States of America embassy bombing in Nairobi, Madrid train attacks and day to day terrorism activities in Middle East countries such as Iraq, Beirut. Pakistan, Afghanistan. According to Bacevich, Andrew (2001) most of the terrorists perceive terrorism as a way of fighting for their freedom which has led to killing of the common and innocent terrorism.

But the main cause of terrorism should not be mistaken as most of the terrorist claim that they have been deprived of their human rights, if this may be regarded as the driving factor behind the terrorism activities then in the conflicts existing in the world would have given rise to many instances of terrorism. Many leaders like Mahatma Gandhi struggled for independence peacefully in India by using diplomacy policy and the European people brought down the Berlin wall without fighting. Also, Martin Luther had to campaign for equal human rights in America without resorting to terrorism. Actually the main principle of terrorism is the doctrine of totalitarianism; the totalitarian regimes are the only ones which can promote terrorism in their territory (Binder, Patrice. 1996)            The Religious causes of terrorism are one of the main causes which have been used by many terrorist groups which are sponsoring the terrorism activities. Most of these religious crusaders are generally dominant in the Asian continent especially in the countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and India respectively. Terrorism is carried out by a group of organized organizations and sometimes it has been found to be sponsored by state governments especially those from Middle East. Terrorist groups have taken roots in the African and Asian continent which they commonly use as the training and attacking bases.

Countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Iran, and Somalia serve as the major habitants of most terrorist groups. Al-Qaeda is one of the popular terrorist groups in the world (Fouda and Nick,2004) and has claimed of being responsible for most of the terrorism activities in the world. Al-Qaeda group which is coordinated by the most wanted criminal Osama Bin Laden has a strong network which has made it difficult to encounter it. Other groups include the Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan which coordinate with other Muslim extremists to carry out their activities (Beres, Louis. 1995).            Some states have also opted to sponsor terrorism in the name of defending their religious sovereignty through their leaders by using the evil doctrine of absolutism; these are leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Ayatollahs, Saddam Hussein, and Yasser Arafat. They have used terrorism to justify their goals, which is contrary.

For instance Sadam Hussein claimed that he was defending his people but instead he was trying to oppress his neighbors. Arafat was not trying to establish a nation but instead destroyed his nation by sponsoring the massacres of numerous Jews during his reign. Actually those who fight as terrorist have been found to rule as terrorist (Bailey, Kathleen.

1996).Most of the terrorist leaders have come to power through military coups and later on rule with a lot of iron fist.            Another profound cause of terrorism may be regarded as the economic cause.

Many of the terrorists have been financed by the rich terrorist groups. These terrorists are mostly young youths who have fallen in the hands of poverty which has consequently forced the involved individuals to undertake the activities of terrorism. The envy of poverty and the social misplacement of people in the society have been regarded as the major cause of international terrorism. For example the Islamic Radical Agencies in the city of Sadr in Baghdad have constantly used their financial support tactics which are seen by many terrorist advocates as one way of rendering the humanitarian aid. Moreover these radicals have constantly argued that they are promoting democracy but instead they are just trying to substantiate their power quest in the name of promoting terrorism. (Bouchat, Clarence.

1996).            The political causes of terrorism can be seen as another profound cause of terrorism in the international wourld.International terrorism dates since the times of the world war and the cold war .This wars generated much development of the weapons of mass destruction which have been used in the terrorist attacks. Many of the terrorist activities which are occurring in the international world have been contributed as a result of political differences. For instance the terrorist activities carried by Somalia terrorist to their neighboring countries such as Kenya has been contributed by the political differences between the government and the Islamic groups respectively who feel that the Somali government is being supported by the Kenyan government and at the same times they argue that Kenya has given United States of America the military training grounds.. Moreover the terrorist activities carried by the Taliban groups from Afghanistan is largely due to the political problems which has existed in the country for more than a decade which has led to the execution of many leaders such as Benazir Bhuto.

Consequently the political differences has led to the terrorist activities in the republic of Sri Lanka where the Tamil Tigers are constantly fighting the civilians and the government since they want to take control of the government(Bowers, Stephen & Kimberly Keys,1998). At the same time most of the terrorist activities has constantly occurred in the North Africa states such as Morocco and Algeria due to some political tensions between the government and the Muslim extremist respectively.            The effects of terrorism can be grouped in to three main categories namely; social, economic and political effects respectively. Economic effects are on top of the league compared with other types of effects. The terrorism activities have constantly led to the reduction of the Foreign Direct Investment of the countries involved since most of the investors fear as a result of lack of security in the countries which they are intending to invest. As a result the economy is reduced since there is less production. At the same time most of the foreign investment may be destroyed as a result of these terrorism activities which have resulted of rooting of the properties during the times of terrorism. The economic effects have been consequently affected by the reduction in the stock exchange in the affected countries.

This has been attributed as a result of negative implication of the terrorist activities which makes the investors in this sector to fear on investing on the purchase of shares in this sector (Brophy, Baermann, Bryan & John Conybeare, 1994)       Loss of life and properties at the times of the terrorism activities has reduced the economic status of the involved countries. The loss of life leads to the reduction of the manpower which can be used in the provision of the labor to the industries and this also has reduced the markets of the finished goods. Moreover the governments has consequently spend a lot of money in trying to treat the terrorism casualties and at the same time reconstruct the destroyed properties such as railways,schools,factories and business premises. (Byman,Daniel.1998). For example the terrorist activities which occurred in Mumbai India killed many people and destroyed the railway infrastructure which serves as the backbone of the Indian economy and the terrorist activities. Moreover even the terrorist activities which occurred in Madrid, Spain resulted in the destruction of the transport infrastructures which led to the reduction of the economy. Consequently the economic sector has been affected as a result of the reduction of the tourism industry.

The foreign industry is greatly inhibited by the terrorism activities since most of the targeted are the tourists who originates from the western countries. For example the tourism industry of Kenya was negatively affected by the bombing of the American embassy in Nairobi and the bombing of the Mombasa hotel in the coast town of Kenya respectively.            The social effects of terrorism activities include the depression of the affected individuals who feel that they lack security. At the same time the terrorist activities have led to the development of negative behaviors in the society. Most of the affected countries have reported the occurrence of the women raping. These negative activities have led to the mental illness to the affected.

For example in Iraq, young girls are constantly forced to marry. Moreover the depression can arise as a result of family displacements which have led to the loss of the family ties. (Brophy-Baermann, Bryan & John Conybeare, 1994).            There are so many methods which can be employed to control the international terrorism. These methods include the counter insurgence, direct talks and strengthening the security.

Counter insurgence method which is commonly used by the western countries including Britain to encounter terrorism involves the use of the military personnel to encounter the terrorist groups in there hide outs (Alavasius, 2002).Immediately after the terrorist activities in Afghanistan, president Bush declared a war on terrorism which aimed at capturing Osama Bin Laden and at the same time eradicating the Al-Qaeda network so as to prevent any future attacks which led to the establishment of operations in Afghanistan, and Pakistan .This operation led to the overthrow of the Taliban rule by the coalition armies led by the United states of America. Counter insurgence has been applied by some countries like Indonesia and Philippines which are opposed to Muslim terrorism (Clarke Richard, 2004).            The internationally affected countries are supposed to respond towards terrorism by providing maximum Security in the transport sector such as the airports, railways and busy commercial centers. Airport screening should be strengthened up to the highest level; this will be done by screening all travelers. The international transportation department is supposed to establish a secure screening programme which will identify any terrorist before traveling. As a measure, all of those found with terrorism intentions should face justice to the fullest.

Emphasis should be made in trying to prosecute the previous criminals connected with terrorism later than trying to prevent future incidents; this will prevent the terrorist from carrying out any attack. Consequently improved technology has to be employed to track the terrorist activities. This technology includes the use of internet searches for investigating the bomb manufacturing sites and guidelines, at the same time track the cyber terrorism business (Gunaratna 2002,).On such large attack, explosive detection system technology which detects explosives from a distance for example the sniffex tool which can manage large systems like trains, planes, airports, and cargos as they can manage a large area hence detecting the explosives in time.

  Due to the fact that terrorist treats have became a major concern to the public and government in general the best bomb detectors becomes the major tool for the international (Burke Jason,2004).            In conclusion, the world is full of in security which has been induced by the activities of terrorism. Western countries have been a major target by the militants who have come up in the name of protecting the Islamic religion. The network of terrorism is to too intact to be broken, this has been promoted by some leaders who are reluctant to fight terrorism and some who involve themselves in the terrorist activities. Terrorism has led to a lot of long term negative effects in the world in general, which includes political, social, and economic effects. Economically many properties and infrastructures such as ports, hospitals, school, and banks have been destroyed. Consequently, many innocent people have lost their lives and at the same time leading to long term health effects. Governments have to blame for the degree of terrorism in existence for they have failed to prevent it.

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